Sungei Serangoon #1

Today girl went to my house and I thought of taking a short walk opposite this canal where I saw some kingfishers last time. I wasn't into making myself wet or bash into some mosquito infested forest this time so this seems to be a perfect outing. And it did turned out rather interesting.

Before we reached, we came by this. Some inconsiderate person threw his leftover mango seed on the grass and it attracted a small group of honey bees.

The canal (which I realised it to be Sungei Serangoon later), was huge and the government had built a park beside it so walking along wasn’t a problem. The only thing was that the weather was scorching hot in the afternoon.

Was quite angry with myself that I didn't bring along a bino again. Saw quite alot of birds there, little egrets, herons, black-naped orioles, eagles, kingfishers and some which I thought looked like bitterns. Haiz...but they were all opposite the bank so I can't see them clearly enough to provide a clearer description to dingli for identification.

Grey heron in flight

White throated Kingfisher (perched on railing) and a monitor lizard stalking it (red circle).

A pigeon quencing its thirst

The Japanese fish

The catch of my day was this. Here was a group of uncles on a fishing trip. And when we turned back after reaching the end of the canal, the uncles were pulling up their fishing net. They caught quite number of fishes which they told me are "日本 fish", or japanese fish and are edible. Can't seemed to find this fish on the net, anyone know their actual common name?

6th Jan~ Thanks to Hai Ren for the identification. Interestingly, I found this comment on wiki. "In Singapore, Oreochromis mossambicus was introduced from Java by the Japanese during World War II, hence its local names, "Japanese fish" and "Java fish"."

Entangled by the fishing net

I also saw this red-eared slider trapped among the netting. Haiz...thats the problem with fishing nets. I asked the uncle if I can free it and he said ok. The poor terrapin was gasping and struggling frantically as I torn off the lines. After I freed it, it scrambled down the canal only to be caught again by the net. =S And so I had to dragged it up again and released it, this time away from the net.

freed at last

Off the canal on the way back home, we came across this beautiful inflorescence among the grasses and I can't help using my macro lens again.

Help...Anybody know what plant is this?

I thought I will end this entry with this picture, again which I extensively cropped to make the heron visible. Nature is all around and hopefully they will survive well amidst all this frenzy of development nowadays.